Yielding major announcements from a number of state dignitaries, the published narrative at the UN Climate Summit 2014 was diverse, with the immediacy for climate action taking precedence.

The following is a list of selected articles, highlighting announcements and commitments made at the Summit with ICLEI´s involvement. This includes particularly – The Compact of Mayors announcement, an unprecedented initiative that aims to consolidate and amplify cities’ commitments to cut emissions, measure progress and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

“The carbon Cities Climate Registry, the designated central repository of the Compact of Mayors, will serve as a platform for city climate data.”

The Compact of Mayors – brings together well over two thousands cities, including over 200 with specific targets and strategies for greenhouse gas reductions. Sixty per cent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030 and that figure increases to 70 per cent by 2050.

“The Compact, which features the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and United Cities and Local Governments, will try to… // The Compact was announced in conjunction with the release of new research, conducted with Arup, which found existing city commitments alone could reduce annual emissions by 454 megatonnes…”

“As world leaders gathered at the U.N. to talk about global warming, mayors set about actually doing something about climate change.”

“At the U.N. summit, 228 cities representing 436 million people committed to avoid more than 2 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas pollution per year going forward under a new global “Compact of Mayors.” And 25 cities pledged to cut methane pollution seeping out of garbage dumps.”

“The effort was started in Mexico City in 2010, said vice chair and Bonn Mayor Jurgen Nimptsch, and a “measurable, reportable, verifiable” way to track climate initiatives. There are already 400 cities voluntarily reporting their climate actions to the carbon registry, Nimptsch said, making up 12 percent of the world’s urban population.”

“Clearly, any solution to climate change needs to have cities at its heart. The UN Climate Summit will have a major focus on cities, with hundreds of national and city-level leaders expected to make commitments that will accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future. One such example is an announcement around a new Compact of Mayors, an initiative that will drive deeper reductions in urban emissions.

The first step to reducing emissions is measuring them. Underlying the Compact is an effort by WRI, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and ICLEIto create a new common standard to measure city-level emissions. At least 60 cities around the globe have already used this system, identifying the main drivers of their emissions and opportunities to reduce them. This is just one example of the innovations we need to design and build cities in a new way.”

“Cities are currently responsible for about 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and can play a critical role in reducing these emissions and strengthening resilience. At the one-day summit, mayors from around the world, including New York, Seoul, Paris, Johannesburg, Bogota, and Copenhagen, announced the signing of the Mayor’s Compact that will harmonize their members’ targets and strategies.”

“Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, announced the Compact of Mayors, an initiative that brings together over 2,000 cities committed to take further action on climate change by reducing emissions by 454 megatons by 2020. Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, Republic of Korea, explained that the initiative will function as a reporting platform that, for the first time, will be available for cities around the world to consult on best practices and tools for climate mitigation and adaptation. He noted that International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), C40 and other stakeholders are partners in this initiative.”

“Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, France, identified main messages, including the need to: ensure complementarity between actions and the international and sub-national levels; secure transparent and continuous funding for long-term challenges; and to scale-up urban climate investments.”

“Bloomberg then invited Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, to announce the launch of the Compact of Mayors, which brings together over 2,000 cities across the global city networks of C40, ICLEI and UCLG.

Under the Compact, local emissions data will be collected through existing city platforms, including partner platform CDP Cities, and will be made publically available through ICLEI’s platform, the carbonn Climate Registry. Cities reporting through the Compact will be using the Global Protocol on Community-scale GHG Emissions to ensure the consistency, credibility and quality of their local emissions data.”

“Through the Compact, some of the world’s leading city networks – C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group,ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) – in partnership with 25 organizations including the World Resources Institute (WRI), will mobilize their cities to amplify and expand commitments to address climate change.

“With 400,000 people on the streets of New York and climate change at the top of the global agenda, this was certainly a hopeful week. Governments and industry seemed to be competing to claim the initiative against climate change…”